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Since trying to minimize our lifestyles and make it more eco-friendly, we've noticed ourselves buying less of certain types of things, and we haven't even missed them. I wanted to share them today! I hope you're inspired to think of things that you could do without for a more stress-free, eco-friendly life, too!

Souvenirs

I used to be one who loved souvenirs, but let's be honest-- what really happens to all those souvenirs? They just sit and then, eventually, they all pile up and instead of letting those souvenirs be a reminder of an awesome vacation, they're just stressing you out. Don't be afraid to donate some of your travel trinkets to make space for things you actually like and will actually use.

K-cups

Last year, we traded our Keurig for a standard drip-brew coffee pot. We realized that buying coffee grounds was cheaper and allowed us to customize our own brews. We also liked that it allowed us to support local coffee shops, too! Plus, K-cups are the WORST in terms of eco-friendliness. So much so, that the creator of the Keurig doesn't even own one himself because of how much he regrets making something that is so awful for the planet.

Straws

This one is sneaky, but do we really need all those plastic straws? Couldn't we just drink straight from the cup? We used to love straws in our house until we realized that Americans alone use 500 million straws A DAY. We wanted to reduce that number even just a little bit, so we've stopped buying straws for our smoothies at home and we often request that the waitress don't bring us a straw.

Mugs

You already know that we downsized our mugs in January and it was great! We have a Starbucks mug from every city we've ever been together and we just thought-- do we really need all these mugs? They create more dishes in the sink and the ones we don't use that often just collect dust in the back of the shelf. P.S. My Gilmore Girls cup was a DEFINITE keeper!

Animal Products

I wouldn't be me if I didn't plug for kicking some animal products to the curb. Not only does it increase the cost of your grocery bill and cause unnecessary health problems, but it's very eco-friendly to start cutting even some animal products out of your diet.1.1 billion people on the planet still lack basic water, and one pound of beef takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce. That's enough for a family of four for almost one week. Livestock for consumption makes up 18% of our human-made green house gases.

Plus, look how delicious these vegan bacon Cesar wraps are!

Water bottles

I am guilty of this. Water bottles are convenient and practical. but extremely wasteful. It takes so much energy to produce water bottles when perfectly good water comes from my tap. 10% of the world's water bottles ends up in the ocean, and even if you are recycling, there's a good chance that your water bottle is still ending up in a landfill or the ocean. Plus, reusable water bottles are so cute nowadays! Check out this one from Faucet Face!

Books

I am a new-found lover of books, but we have so many of them. When we moved in together, we realized that we ended up with multiple copies of books (shows we're a good match, huh?) We also had textbooks still laying around from college, books we read once but didn't enjoy, or books we seriously would never read. Don't let book clutter stress you out! Donate them, sell them, give them to someone who would enjoy them!

DVDs

Same for movies. I used to be a huge sucker of the $5 movies at Target, buying movies that I wanted to see just because they were $5. So I ended up with a lot of mediocore movies that I honestly would probably never watch again. And yet, I also hung onto them because "What if we have a movie night and I need a good chick flick?" Uhh...it's called Redbox or Amazon or Hulu or Netflix or asking to borrow a movie from a friend. I mean look at all these early 2000 classics I have going on here. Freaky Friday, Ice Princess, The Lizzie McGuire Movie..

Latest Gadgets

I'm not one for the latest gadgets, but Brandon is and we've found that by resisting or selling our latest gadgets, we have really found a more stress-free life. Sometimes, simple is better. You don't need much to be happy and sometimes, we complicate things by thinking that we need all these new things that are going to make our lives easier. But really, they just clutter our space and minds. Keep in mind that sometimes simpler is better.